In English you simply get up. In Portuguese you raise yourself: levantar-se. The -se on the end of the infinitive marks a reflexive verb — one where the person doing the action is also the one it happens to.

When you conjugate, that -se becomes a small pronoun that matches the subject:

Subject	Pronoun	Example
eu	me	Eu me levanto. — I get up.
você / ele / ela	se	Ela se levanta. — She gets up.
nós	nos	Nós nos levantamos. — We get up.
vocês / eles / elas	se	Eles se levantam. — They get up.

The verb itself is perfectly ordinary: levantar conjugates like falar and morar. Only the pronoun is new.